Computer-based, on-line communications have become quite popular in recent years. Businesses have joined universities and government institutions in linking up via high-speed data transmission lines, while millions of private citizens have joined in using modems and broadband links that connect their personal computers to networks spanning the globe. Among the many uses of on-line communication, the most important are electronic mail (or “email”), file transfers, direct use and operation of computers at long range, and real-time conversations (“chat”) between a plurality of individuals via on-screen exchanges of text, visual, and other information.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of a typical prior art on-line communication system. Each of a plurality of user terminals 100a, 100b, 100c communicates through corresponding communications channels 102a, 102b, 102c of a network 104 to a server computer 106. The user terminals 100a, 100b, 100c may be, for example, personal computers, “thin” clients, hand-held personal digital assistants, and the like, each typically having a display screen or other output device (e.g., speakers) and at least one input device (e.g., keyboard, mouse, touch pad, and/or microphone). The communications channels 102a, 102b, 102c may be of any conventional type, such as telephone modems, digital subscriber line modems, cable modems, dedicated data transmission lines, or wireless links. The network 104 may be a local area network, a wide-area private network (e.g., an “intranet”), or a wide-area public network (e.g., the Internet).
In such a configuration, typical “chat room” and “instant message” computer program applications allow two or more users to exchange text through the user terminals 100a, 100b, 100c. Each participant types or otherwise inputs (e.g., “pastes” from another source) text into a screen or “window” of a user terminal. This information typically is transmitted to the server 106 operating under a “host” protocol. The server 106 redistributes the input text to all participants. Most host protocols are programmed to cause the text lines to appear on a user terminal display screen for all participants. This creates the illusion that the users are participating in a conversation.
In most cases, the text sent by each participant is handled on a line-by-line basis. FIG. 2A is a diagram of a typical prior art window-based chat room showing the procession of text input by two participants, P1 and P2. Each participant inputs text within an associated text editing control 200 (in this example, an edit cursor bar 201 for P1's input is shown in mid-word). All of the text input by all participants appears in a conversation window 202. All participants in this particular chat room, not just P1 and P2, would see the conversation shown in the example. Further contributions are added sequentially to the bottom of the conversation window 202, in the order that the server computer 106 receives them. Meanwhile, earlier lines scroll “upward” and eventually disappear off the top of each user's window or screen display. A scroll bar 204 may be provided to review prior conversations that have scrolled out of the conversation window 202.
In the case of a slow, thoughtful conversation, comments and responses can follow one another in an orderly manner, giving a reasonable simulation of a real world conversation. Unfortunately, most on-line conversations are seldom orderly. In fact, problems with prior art chat systems become apparent soon after a user logs onto almost any chat session, bulletin board, or conference forum.
An immediately apparent problem is interruption. FIG. 2B is a diagram of a typical prior art window-based chat room showing the interrupted procession of text input by three participants, P1, P2, and P3. Starting from the top of the conversation window 202, after P1 inputs a first line of text, P2 begins to input text, but before P2 is done, P3 replies to P1's question. P2's response then appears. The result can be that three participants hold two simultaneous, intertwined (and thus confusing) conversations. In many chat rooms, the number of participants can rise to one or two dozen, resulting in a visual cacophony of mutual interruptions and parallel conversations that are shuffled together like a randomized deck of cards. However, such interrupted conversations may occur with only two participants.
None of the known chat systems take any significant advantage of the many techniques human beings have developed for participating in, perceiving, controlling, or gleaning subtleties from real-life conversations. Present systems simply ignore a wide range of talents already possessed by most users that enable them to process information efficiently in daily life. These drawbacks contribute to inefficiency, user fatigue, and interpersonal misunderstandings. The present invention addresses these problems.